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Investigating the welfare, management and human-animal interactions of cattle in four Indonesian abattoirs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

RE Doyle ,
GJ Coleman ,
DM McGill ,
M Reed ,
W Ramdani  and
PH Hemsworth
RE Doyle*
Affiliation:
Animal Welfare Science Centre, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia
GJ Coleman
Affiliation:
Animal Welfare Science Centre, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia
DM McGill
Affiliation:
Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation, Locked Bag 588, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2678, Australia
M Reed
Affiliation:
North Australian Cattle Company, Cullen Bay, Darwin, Northern Territory 0820, Australia
W Ramdani
Affiliation:
Meat and Livestock Australia, BSD City South Tangerang, Banten 15322, Indonesia
PH Hemsworth
Affiliation:
Animal Welfare Science Centre, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia
*
* Contact for correspondence and requests for reprints: rebecca.doyle@unimelb.edu.au
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Abstract

This study reports novel information on the animal handling, management and human-animal interactions in Indonesian cattle abattoirs. The slaughter of 304 cattle was observed and there was a high percentage of re-stuns in all abattoirs (range: 8-18.9%) when compared to a variety of international auditing guidelines. The average stun-to-neck cut time was within international recommendations (average: 9 s; range: 4-15 s). Time spent in lairage varied between animals and facilities and was compliant with international guidelines. Handling times were extremely variable (2 s-23 min 40s), but were only weakly correlated with a variety of handler techniques including the total number of handler interactions (sum of visual, auditory and tactile interactions, suggesting that long handling time does not increase handler interactions. There was a moderate correlation between the subjective handling scale and most of the objective behaviours, indicating that this may be a useful way to summarise handler behaviour in future assessments. The current study provides novel information about animal welfare in Indonesian abattoirs and highlights that management practices at the four abattoirs generally comply with international standards. The results also suggest that the subjective handling scale was moderately associated with the frequency of handler interactions, and so may be a useful measure of handler behaviour.

Keywords

animal welfarecattlehandlinghuman-animal interactionslive exportslaughter
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Welfare , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , May 2016 , pp. 191 - 197
Copyright
© 2016 Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

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